Nusaybin

Nusaybin: church of St. Jacob

Nusaybin, formerly Nisibin, town, southeastern Turkey. The town is situated on the Görgarbonizra River where it passes through a narrow canyon and enters the plain. Nusaybin faces the Syrian town of Al-Qāmishlī and is 32 miles (51 km) south-southeast of Mardin.

Strategically commanding the entrance to the upper plains of Syria from the mountain passes of Asia Minor (Anatolia), Nusaybin—then called Nisibis—was a frontier outpost of the Assyrian empire. Captured from the Armenian king Tigranes II the Great by the Roman general Lucius Licinius Lucullus in 68 bce, it changed hands intermittently in the struggles between Rome and Parthia. It was conquered by the Persians in the 5th century ce and was then taken by the Arabs about 640. It continued to prosper under the caliphs until the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. It finally declined as a result of invasions and internal troubles. The renowned North African traveler Ibn Baṭṭūṭah, who passed through in the 14th century, saw it in a state of decline that he attributed to the compulsory substitution of wheat for fruit crops.

Nusaybin was also a major centre of trade in antiquity, and it still retains some significance for its position on the upper trade routes from Mosul, Iraq, 120 miles (190 km) southeast, and its location on the rail line between Istanbul and Baghdad. Pop. (2000) 74,110; (2013 est.) 88,047.